Incorporating life cycle external cost in optimization of the electricity generation mix

The present work aims to examine the strategic decision of future electricity generation mix considering, together with all other factors, the effect of the external cost associated with the available power generation technology options, not only during their operation but also during their whole life cycle. The analysis has been performed by integrating the Life Cycle Assessment concept into a linear programming model for the yearly decisions on which option should be used to minimize the electricity generation cost. The model has been applied for the case of Greece for the years 2012-2050 and has led to several interesting results. Firstly, most of the new generating capacity should be renewable (mostly biomass and wind), while natural gas is usually the only conventional fuel technology chosen. If externalities are considered, wind energy increases its share and hydro-power replaces significant amounts of biomass-generated energy. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis has been performed. One of the most important findings is that natural gas increases its contribution when externalities are increased. Summing-up, external cost has been found to be a significant percentage of the total electricity generation cost for some energy sources, therefore significantly changing the ranking order of cost-competitiveness for the energy sources examined

Carbon footprint and water footprint of electric vehicles and batteries charging in view of various sources of power supply in the Czech Republic

In the light of recent developments regarding electric vehicle market share, we assess the carbon footprint and water footprint of electric vehicles and provide a comparative analysis of energy use from the grid to charge electric vehicle batteries in the Czech Republic. The analysis builds on the electricity generation forecast for the Czech Republic for 2015–2050. The impact of different sources of electricity supply on carbon and water footprints were analyzed based on electricity generation by source for the period. Within the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the carbon footprint was calculated using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) method, while the water footprint was determined by the Water Scarcity method. The computational LCA model was provided by the SimaPro v. 8.5 package with the Ecoinvent v. 3 database. The functional unit of study was running an electric vehicle over 100 km. The system boundary covered an electric vehicle life cycle from cradle to grave. For the analysis, we chose a vehicle powered by a lithium-ion battery with assumed consumption 19.9 kWh/100 km. The results show that electricity generated to charge electric vehicle batteries is the main determinant of carbon and water footprints related to electric vehicles in the Czech Republic. Another important factor is passenger car production. Nuclear power is the main determinant of the water footprint for the current and future electric vehicle charging, while, currently, lignite and hard coal are the main determinants of carbon footprint.Web of Science63art. no. 3

Solar energy technologies in sustainable energy action plans of italian big cities

Cities, accounting for more than 3/4 of global final energy consumption, are equipping themselves with governance tools to improve energy efficiency. In Europe, urban energy policy has adopted, only recently and voluntarily, the Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAP), following the European Strategy 20-20-20. Italy, country most sensitive among European ones, accounts for 53% of SEAPs signatories. In order to evaluate how urban energy system in Italy can match sustainability European goals, it is necessary to analyse the technological options promoted by the energy policies for the urban environment. The paper presents the state-of-art of Urban Energy Planning in Italy, focusing on the implementation of Solar Energy technologies, and their role in new urban energy strategy instruments, i.e. SEAP, to promote renewables deployment. Carbon emission avoidance interventions planned by Italian big cities were analysed, highlighting the chosen Solar Energy technology. The aim of this paper is to discuss and evaluate the differences of solar energy harvesting in Italian urban scenarios, taking into account geographical and morphological constraints, and to compare the forecasts for 2020 and 2030scenarios, in accordance with European and National laws in force

A GIS based anthropogenic PM10 emission inventory for Greece

AbstractAn anthropogenic, chemically speciated PM10 emission inventory was compiled for Greece in 10km spatial resolution. The inventory comprises of all anthropogenic particulate matter sources and it was compiled using a Geographical Information System (GIS) integrated with SQL programming language. Input data from the national and international databases were used for the calculation of spatially and temporally resolved emissions for the road transport and all the subsectors of the other mobile sources and machinery sector using top–down or bottom–up methodologies. Annual data from existing emission databases were also used and were temporally and spatially disaggregated using source relevant statistical data and high resolution maps. The sectoral emission totals are compared with other emission databases or studies conducted in the area. Total anthropogenic emissions in Greece were estimated to be 182 219t for the base year 2003. The results indicate the industrial sector as the major PM10 emission source (39.9% contribution) with the major industrial units though to be situated inside the organised industrial areas of the country. The power generation sector (21.4%) is the second largest contributor in national level mostly derived from one specific industrial region at north. International cargo shipping activities (9.6%) is also an important source category for particles. Heat production and road transport are found to play a significant role inside the urban centres of the country

Logistics issues of biomass : the storage problem and the multi-biomass supply chain

Biomass is a renewable energy source with increasing importance. The larger fraction of cost in biomass energy generation originates from the logistics operations. A major issue concerning biomass logistics is its storage, especially when it is characterized by seasonal availability. The biomass energy exploitation literature has rarely investigated the issue of biomass storage. Rather, researchers usually choose arbitrarily the lowest cost storage method available, ignoring the effects this choice may have on the total system efficiency. In this work, the three most frequently used biomass storage methods are analyzed and are applied to a case study to come up with tangible comparative results. Furthermore, the issue of combining multiple biomass supply chains, aiming at reducing the storage space requirements, is introduced. An application of this innovative concept is also performed for the case study examined. The most important results of the case study are that the lowest cost storage method indeed constitutes the system-wide most efficient solution, and that the multi-biomass approach is more advantageous when combined with relatively expensive storage methods. However, low cost biomass storage methods bear increased health, safety and technological risks that should always be taken into account. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A Comprehensive Emission Inventory of Bbiogenic Volatile Organic Compounds in Europe: Improved Seasonality and Land-cover

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) emitted from vegetation are important for the formation of secondary pollutants such as ozone and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in the atmosphere. Therefore, BVOC emission are an important input for air quality models. To model these emissions with high spatial resolution, the accuracy of the underlying vegetation inventory is crucial. We present a BVOC emission model that accommodates different vegetation inventories and uses satellite-based measurements of greenness instead of pre-defined vegetation periods. This approach to seasonality implicitly treats effects caused by water or nutrient availability, altitude and latitude on a plant stand. Additionally, we test the influence of proposed seasonal variability in enzyme activity on BVOC emissions. In its present setup, the emission model calculates hourly emissions of isoprene, monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and the oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOC) methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid, ethanol, acetaldehyde, acetone and acetic acid. In this study, emissions based on three different vegetation inventories are compared with each other and diurnal and seasonal variations in Europe are investigated for the year 2006. Two of these vegetation inventories require information on tree-cover as an input. We compare three different land-cover inventories (USGS GLCC, GLC2000 and Globcover 2.2) with respect to tree-cover. The often-used USGS GLCC land-cover inventory leads to a severe reduction of BVOC emissions due to a potential miss-attribution of broad-leaved trees and reduced tree-cover compared to the two other land-cover inventories. To account for uncertainties in the land-cover classification, we introduce land-cover correction factors for each relevant land-use category to adjust the tree-cover. The results are very sensitive to these factors within the plausible range. For June 2006, total monthly BVOC emissions decreased up to −27% with minimal and increased up to +71% with maximal factors, while in January 2006, the changes in monthly BVOC emissions were −54 and +56% with minimal and maximal factors, respectively. The new seasonality approach leads to a reduction in the annual emissions compared with non-adjusted data. The strongest reduction occurs in OVOC (up to −32 %), the weakest in isoprene (as little as −19 %). If also enzyme seasonality is taken into account, however, isoprene reacts with the steepest decrease of annual emissions, which are reduced by −44% to −49 %, annual emissions of monoterpenes reduce between −30 and −35 %. The sensitivity of the model to changes in temperature depends on the climatic zone but not on the vegetation inventory. The sensitivity is higher for temperature increases of 3K (+31% to +64 %) than decreases by the same amount (−20 to −35 %). The climatic zones “Cold except summer” and “arid” are most sensitive to temperature changes in January for isoprene and monoterpenes, respectively, while in June, “polar” is most sensitive to temperature for both isoprene and monoterpenes. Our model predicts the oxygenated volatile organic compounds to be the most abundant fraction of the annual European emissions (3571–5328 Gg yr−1), followed by monoterpenes (2964–4124 Gg yr−1), isoprene (1450–2650 Gg yr−1) and sesquiterpenes (150–257 Gg yr−1). We find regions with high isoprene emissions (most notably the Iberian Peninsula), but overall, oxygenated VOC dominate with 43–45% (depending on the vegetation inventory) contribution to the total annual BVOC emissions in Europe. Isoprene contributes between 18–21 %, monoterpenes 33–36% and sesquiterpenes contribute 1–2 %.We compare the concentrations of biogenic species simulated by an air quality model with measurements of isoprene and monoterpenes in Hohenpeissenberg (Germany) for both summer and winter. The agreement between observed and modelled concentrations is better in summer than in winter. This can partly be explained with the difficulty to model weather conditions in winter accurately, but also with the increased anthropogenic influence on the concentrations of BVOC compounds in winter. Our results suggest that land-cover inventories used to derive tree-cover must be chosen with care. Also, uncertainties in the classification of land-cover pixels must be taken into account and remain high. This problem must be addressed together with the remote sensing community. Our new approach using a greenness index for addressing seasonality of vegetation can be implemented easily in existing models. The importance of OVOC for air quality should be more deeply addressed by future studies, especially in smog chambers. Also, the fate of BVOC from the dominant region of the Iberian Peninsula should be studied more in detail